The Microsoft in Power & Utilities blog discusses the emerging technological and economic challenges facing the global Utility industry and how Utilities can innovate through a strategy based on devices and services to transform and grow their business

Enabling Efficient Crew Dispatch

Enabling Efficient Crew Dispatch

A violent storm tears down electric feeders knocking out power to thousands of people. Almost immediately Utility dispatchers are hard at work scheduling crews to restore service. This scenario is plays out in Utilities around the world on a daily basis and efficient crew dispatch is a one of the key ingredients of better service and getting the lights back on fast!

Microsoft gold certified partner Convergent has put together a great solution for crew scheduling and dispatch using Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is the latest ‘wave 14’ communications product that delivers complete presence, instant messaging, conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities through a single, easy-to-use interface that is consistent across PC, browser, and mobile device. Administrators benefit from a single, consistent management infrastructure, new capabilities to increase availability, and interoperability with existing system.

One of the features that sets this products apart from its predecessors is its extensibility that makes it easy to embed Microsoft Lync UI elements in applications, build your own client experience in .NET with open and documented APIs, and enhance contextual collaboration by launching applications right from Microsoft Lync. This enables support for many solutions like sophisticated business solutions enabled with access to all UC-enabled services from any phone, and deliver state-of-the-art speech technology in 26 languages.

The Convergent demo is a great example of using next generation communication and collaboration experiences to transform traditional business application like crew dispatch. I highly recommend checking this video out by going here! - Jon C. Arnold